Attention Deficit Syndrome ( ADS)..

If AIDS was the scariest syndrome of the 20th Century, the forecast is to be ADS ( Attention Deficit Syndrome ) in the 21st Century. Medically it is situation of being less attentive, restless and inability to focus and so on..
I’m sure it affects most of the urban people, the bigger the city or lower the tier ( Tier 1).. the more acute is the infection and hence the paranoia…
We often get to see people with 2 phones, ( or one phone with 2 SIM’s), blue tooth attached to the ear, hitting away on the laptop and of course an I-Pod hanging from the other ear all the time doing something else like either eating, watching TV, reading newspaper and so on..
Now where is the person concentrating ? it is hard to say...
Another eg : , an average person has atleast 1000 different marketing messages coming in a day.. It can be plain old classifieds, hoardings & bill boards at the traffic signal, TV ad’s, Scrollers on TV, Leaflets, Radio Jingles, Persistent Tele –Calls, Emails, Google Ad’s, Banners in the Shops, Point of Sale ( Billing Counter) Promotions, and even the carry bags of shoppers scream out some kind of promotional message ( SALE!!!)…And then there is the trust worthy “ word of mouth” promotion…Marketer’s around the world innovate everyday on a new way to get the average consumer’s shrinking attention span…

I remember my Dad telling me that in his time, students joined engineering after their degree course which is mostly in science for engineering & medicine. This way, there is higher maturity and understanding when they join for the professional course. During my time, I joined straight after 12th std, and engineering college was basically fun. I passed out with honors without even knowing the basics of what I can engineer…

That’s a whole 3 years of my life which got compressed. There are courses where bachelors + masters engineering is completed in 5 years ( compressed 1 year).. and of course crash courses.. 21 days MBA, 1 week diploma’s and so many more..

The effects of this syndrome are there to see in many ways. Most people of the present generation change job’s easily..During the vedic ages, we read about “ Kula “ jobs ( All people in the certain Kula keep themselves busy in a single family job variety), then more recently you have parents who join & retire from the same company and often children follow same footsteps.. Now it varies from anywhere from 3 months to 5 – 6 years maximum.. after that I guess you become part of the company furniture and rusting…

An average middle class family changes their Car atleast 3 times in their lieftime, other white goods are changed more often, interior deco and renovations are changed once in 3 -4 years..and some even start re - settling in a whole new place after some time.. These are some things which are supposed to be permenant for a long long time.
We blow hot & cold on interests, activities, hang out areas, friends, and so on.. Everytime the interest is to try out something new, again indicating inability to focus for long period of time..

I guess divorces also happen because of sheer boredom when the novelty wears out after some time..

I dont think there are any permenant cures to this fast spreading disease.Of course there are many " find your inner self" mechanisms like meditation, yoga, vacationing etc which helps the person expand their focus for some time. But these dont last for long, when we get back to realty there are the phones to attend and the high priority mails streaming in, a boss breathing down your neck, home chores, EMI's to pay and so many more all wanting immediate & urgent attention...

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